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Monday, April 3, 2017

Questions, Answers, & A Bundle of Writing Templates!

Here are the answers to your questions, but first...

I have had so many requests for the products I shared on my webinar from March 29 that I decided to make ALL of the templates available as a bundle on a flash drive for a discounted price.

Here is what you'll get:

*Instant Writing -Students create sentences with the help of 72 labeled picture cards and a chart of helping words.

*The Flag writing template -Students write and illustrate on this American flag template. You get two different size lines.

*When I Grow Up template -Students write about what they want to be when they grow up. You get two templates which allow for differentiating. Add a photo of them dressed up as if they are working at their future career and it will make a great bulletin board.

*Shape Writing - Templates for cover pages and writing about each of the four 2D shapes (circle, square, triangle, & rectangle).

*Daily Journal Diaries -A cover page and a journal template for each month Aug-June where the students or the teacher can record each day's activities.

*Journals with rubrics -Four seasonal and one generic journal template with built-in rubrics.

*My Sensational Adventure -Five writing templates all about the five senses. This makes a great take-home book written by each of your students.

Basically, it is everything from the webinar

+ the Daily Journal Diaries & the 5 Senses writing.

It's $25 (a $32 value) and includes FREE SHIPPING.

Plus, you get the flash drive.

Let me know if you want one by leaving a comment

or you can email me at

kfundamentals@gmail.com

I use PayPal for your protection.

Now, to answer your questions...

April, from Glenview, Illinois asked:What do you do with the kid who is so frustrated to even try writing that he cries?

Besides using "Instant Writing" to develop oral lang and make writing fun, I used an "Easy Button" from Staples. If the students tell me that writing was easy for them, they may press the Easy Button which says, "That was easy!" This little button eliminated ALL tears and my students could not wait to press the Easy Button. Here is a link: http://www.staples.com/Staples-Easy-Button-/product_606396

It comes in English or Spanish.

Lila, from Quincy, Washington stated: any management tips would be great.

During small group instruction time, I start each writing lesson by having students illustrate their response to the prompt. While they are illustrating, I ask them what they want to write and I help them to get their sentence on the paper. This might include writing it for them to copy or writing just the first letter of each word for them to attempt to finish. By the time I get to the last student, it is time to check the progress of each child once again.

The student is illustrating, I wrote the 1st letter of each word for him.
He wrote the sight words "I like".

I attached lined, dry-erase contact paper to laminated construction paper.
Then, I wrote their dictated sentence on the lines with a dry erase pen
and they copied.

During whole group time, students come up to have their writing checked by me and I ask them to make corrections and come back to see me. They line up to do this and I try to work quickly so I don't have more than 3 students waiting at any given time. I also ask students who finish early to check other students' journals for simple skills such as using a capital for the first letter, using a period at the end, or leaving spaces between words.

Kimberly, from Warminster, Pennsylvania stated: Students who sound out words and add too many letters. Over sounding out.

Work on listening for syllables daily. Clap them, slap them, and count them. For example: Say, "Window, win-dow." As students are writing in a small group setting, you write the first letter of each syllable of the word they are over-sounding. So for "window" you would write w____d____.

Karyn, from Portsmouth, New Hampshire asked: How do you address students who have fine motor difficulties and know very little letter/sound correspondences?

Writing can begin on unlined paper where the content of their sentence is the goal and not the fine-motor skills or the mechanics, but as the year progresses we need to also focus on these skills. Give your students (and encourage parents to provide) opportunities to develop fine motor skills and build up the muscles in their fingers. Working with small Legos, clay, lacing cards, or my Dotted Pin Cards will help your students to strengthen their small muscles. You can find my Dotted Pin Cards by CLICKING HERE.

Using a pushpin on the carpet.

If students have very little letter/sound correspondence, try introducing Zoo Phonics. Students will quickly associate an animal with each letter sound. You can introduce one a day for 26 school days. While you are doing this, go ahead and take dictation from your students with a wide tip highlighter and allow them to trace over the letters you wrote which will help to improve their fine-motor skills and make the connection between letters and their sounds.

Jody, from Kennesaw, Georgia asked:what is the best way to keep a students writing papers together? Notebook? Tablet? Folder?

I stapled 10 to 15 pages with a construction paper cover together with their journal pages each month.

Monthly journals with rubrics.

For Friday writing, I started with a 12"X12" sheet of colored construction paper, glued an 11"X11" sheet of black construction paper to the center and laminated it. I added a medical file clip (You can find these at office supply stores. I'll include a photo.) and each time students wrote, I punched 2 holes in their paper and added them to the clip. This created an instant bulletin board, but it also kept their themed writing together all year long.

At the end of the year, I opened the clip and slipped all of each child's papers into an envelope created with a piece of 12"X18" construction paper folded to create a 12"X12" square. This created a 6" pocket. I slipped the pages into the pocket and created a label that said, "If you give a kid a pencil, they are going to write."